Holy Land Hardball's tribute to Our Man Elli

Holy Land Hardball, the documentary about the optimistic, hopeful start of the Israel Baseball League in 2007, got its first nationwide U.S. audience last night, thanks to an airing on the MLB Network and proved to be a great, feelgood work of art about a group of men who became young again by carrying out an innocent, naive dream in a foreign land. Yet to those who know how the story played out, the film proved to be a poignant, even anger-making document as the cheerful, seemingly guileless businessmen behind the scenes were revealed to be charlatans, liars, scamsters and worse.

Experiencing Holy Land Hardball without the real-life epilogue of deceit and failure that followed would be like watching a lump-in-the-throat doco about Mark McGwire's chase of baseball's home run record later tonight, with no knowledge of his overdue shameful, tearful steroid admission on the very same MLB Network earlier this evening.

Yet for us, there was a high point to Holy Land Hardball, and that was the quick tribute given to Our Man Elli in Israel early in the film. As disgraced IBL founder Larry Baras is profiled affectionately as a bagel-making bumpkin blustering his way through the baseball business, there is a brief moment when he is shown being interviewed by Our Man Elli.


There he is, Elli Wohlgelernter, the journalist who would expose the moral and financial corruption of the IBL days after the final pitch, shown interviewing Baras months before the first pitch, Elli towering over the self-styled baseball exec, the no-frills professional, holding a large, makeshift hand microphone, wearing a tie, kippah in place, unmistakeably an Israeli, unquestionably a Jew, asking Baras:

"And how fearful are you
that you could end up
being called 'a colossal failure'?"

Baras does not answer.

The filmmakers, baseball historians that they are, were sitting in their editing room doing post production on the film at the same time that Our Man Elli's reportage was spooling out from this site and other publications, day after day, month after month. They saw that Larry Baras was being called many other things beyond "colossal failure." They realized that Elli was onto something from the start, and knew that history would prove him right.

So they gave him that tribute.

Nice job, boys. We're only sorry it took us this long to see it!

Click here to read the complete year-long coverage of the rise and fall of the Israel Baseball League and much more of Our Man Elli's reportage at Tabloid Baby's special Baseball in Israel archive site.

Update: Israel Baseball League's controversial "interim president" and twittering, money-seeking huckster David Solomont files Chapter 11

David Solomont has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Solomont is the well-known and controversial Boston area investor who took over as frontman for the Israel Baseball League from disgraced Boston bagel baron Larry Baras amid the financial disarray that followed its disastrous first season, intimated that he would rescue and restart the league with his own personal fortune and connections, then promised an eleventh-hour 20-game second season that was eventually downgraded to a five-game show weekend that never took place but was never officially canceled. When last heard from in these parts last December, Solomont was still attempting to raise money from US-based Zionists and Jews for a 2009 Israeli Baseball season that had already been blocked by Israeli government sports officials.

Solomont filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Boston.

Solomont, who was a pioneer in announcing his business intentions and daily activities on Twitter, reportedly was a founder of the Massachusetts Software Council and a founder of CommonAngels, a top angel investment firm based in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Solomont listed his assets as being between $1 million and $10 million. His wife, Joan Solomont, is listed as a fellow debtor.

An attorney for Solomont refused to comment on the case.

Solomont has faced legal troubles in the past. In 2004 he was accused in civil cases of diverting money from a startup he presided over to a holding company he ran. The outcome of those allegations is still unclear.

Solomont's Israel baseball shenanigans and the entire exploits of the Israel Baseball league were documented here in coverage led by Our Man Elli in Israel. The entirety of our Pultizer Prize-nominated coverage can be found at our Baseball in Israel archive site.

Exclusive! Boston businessman continues raising funds for 2009 Israel Baseball League season that sources say won't be allowed to take place

Yes, we went cold turkey on coverage of the scandal of the Israel Baseball League after a solid year of intense, exclusive, controversial and Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporting. And in light of that Pulitzer nod, we’ll be checking in occasionally with updates provided by the tenacious and world-beating reporter Elli Wohlgelernter—known here as Our Man Elli In Israel-- who carried this story singlehandedly and reported recently that there will be no professional baseball in Israel until 2010 at the earliest.

Our Man Elli’s reportage apparently stirred up a reaction from the Boston-based businessman who's now heading the putative league-- and apparently still drumming up money from American investors for the battered IBL. He sends along this latest, exclusive report:

It appears it ain’t over for the non-existent Israel Baseball League, which continues to squeeze the American Jewish community for money and solicit unsuspecting American Jews and Zionists for an Israeli baseball season that’s already been blocked by Israeli officials.

I obtained an email sent by David Solomont, who took the reins of the IBL from embattled Boston bagel baron Larry Baras (and was immediately tagged with the sobriquet “El Presidente of the Dominican Republic of The Middle East Baseball League”) stating his intention to play professional baseball in "the summer of 2009 and have a winter season Nov to Jan 2009/2010”:

From: David Solomont
To: ***** ****************
Cc: ****…
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 7:39:24 PM
Subject: Re: Baseball In Israel
Unfortunately, there is no baseball next week.
We expect to kick off the 2009 season in late June and play the summer of 2009 and have a winter season Nov to Jan 2009/2010.
David Solomont
(617) ***-****

As I reported on December 3rd, sources tell me that one thing is for sure: the Israel Association of Baseball, which governs the sport in the nation, will not negotiate with David Solomont.


The controversial Boston businessman and de facto head of the IBL is persona non grata, ever since he announced a twenty-game 2008 IBL season ... make that seven-game… er, six-game... would you believe a five-game "festivus" that never took place?

Even so, the front man for disgraced IBL founder and former president Larry Baras continues raising cash for a pro baseball league in Israel in 2009.

Every source close to the Israel sports establishment tells me that Solomont may have a chance kicking off a 2009 season in Santo Domingo starring Chico Escuela, but has little chance of running a season in the Holy Land.

There will be no sequel to the rousing documentary Holy Land Hardball, because the Israel Association of Baseball is not, and will not, negotiate any deal with the league that survived a single season in 2007.


Solomont is also urging potential investors to sign up on the IBL website for news. When we last looked, there hadn't been a new posting since the infamous July 24th, 2008 announcement that stated explicit plans for:

"…a week-long baseball festival starting on August 17th that will pit an IBL All-Star team against a team made up of premier Israeli players.

“Details of the baseball festival, which will run from August 17th through August 21st, will be announced on this site in the upcoming days.

“Players have already begun to arrive in Israel for the event, which will also feature clinics during the week in Hashmonaim and Bet Shemesh. Photograph sessions will be available before and after every game with your favorite IBL star. Tickets will be sold at the door with all proceeds to benefit JNF's Project Baseball."

As of today, December 20th, there is no update on the now-legendary Festivus.

And speaking of Larry Baras-- remember my report of December 3rd, I asked:

“Why is the JNF in bed with the IBL? “And how much money is stuffed inside the mattress of that bed?”

Now, it turns out they've pulled up the sheets to snuggle even closer:

Larry Baras is now on the board of the New England branch of the JNF.

Stay tuned…

(And catch up on all our coverage of the Israeli Baseball saga here, at our Baseball in Israel website.)

Remember professional baseball in Israel? Well, fughedabout it for 2009! And maybe 2010!

Remember the Israel Baseball League?

Remember how we spent an entire year covering the fallout from the inspirational, fun, yet disastrous 2007 inaugural season of the Israel Baseball League, and followed every lawsuit, liar, layabout and lunkhead as they schemed, blathered, promised, fought, sued, threatened, begged and bullshat until by the same time 365 days later, we had to throw our hands up and walk away?

We ended our intense coverage on that first anniversary, but not before starting up a special Baseball in Israel companion site-- and not without regret, as we wrote:

"...The story grew on its own... with all its intrigue, deceit, betrayals and bizarre and unintentionally comedic twists. And the characters-- including a bagel baron, a champion competitive eater, a fast food defector, a ballplaying attorney, an overgrown Peter Pan, a mysterious Dominican, a toymaker, a billionaire, a US ambassador, a neglected wife, a controversial web mogul-- only made the saga richer.

"In the past twelve months and more than 300 posts, this site-- a tabloidcentric site of pop culture and media criticism and satire, became the meeting place and sounding board for ballplayers and sports fans around the world-- not mention a place where anonymity allowed key players in the story to float rumours and leads.

"All credit goes to Elli Wohlgelernter..."

We also said we’d report back when there was something worthwhile to report. So Elli Wohlgelernter, the top Jerusalem-based journalist known in these parts as Our Man Elli In Israel-- the man whose reportage, hard work and expertise our comprehensive coverage was built upon-- has this report:

Professional Baseball in Israel rained out for 2009

by ELLI WOHLGELERNTER
Special to TabloidBaby.com

JERUSALEM - Forget about professional baseball in Israel in 2009.

Sources tell me that the current economic meltdown is making it difficult to jumpstart a professional league of any kind in Israel in the foreseeable future.

"The economic climate is not the most conducive for these kinds of ventures,” says a figure close to the Israel Association of Baseball (Israel’s governing body for baseball and the only group authorized to run a pro league here). “But hopefully by 2010 there will be some kind of pro league here.”

The source adds that the IBA “hopes we’ll have something concrete to say this month, but it ain’t over till its over”—which seems to imply there are some serious negotiations being conducted.

Other sources tell me that one thing is for sure - the IAB is not negotiating with David Solomont. The controversial Boston businessman, who installed himself as the de facto head of the Israel Baseball League is persona non grata ever since he announced a twenty-game 2008 IBL season ... make that seven-game… er, six-game... would you believe a five-game "festivus" that never took place?

Even so, the frontman for disgraced IBL founder and former president Larry Baras continues to try and raise cash for a pro baseball league in Israel.

His “Twitter” page-- his preferred means of announcement-- states:

"Solomont
Getting ready for a hectic week with 3 deals to close! 12:28 PM Nov 28th from web


"working on several transactions -- Electric Vehicle Propulsion Systems is "hot". Of course, baseball is right up there as well:) 11:46 AM Nov 18th from web

"Working on Electric Vehicle Propulsion Systems, Solar Powered iphone Charger/Carrying Case, and Baseball! 8:26 AM Oct 13th"

The problem is that Solomont’s public displays are hindering others from moving forward.

Another insider who doesn’t want his name used:

"Solomont is going around telling people that all he has to do to get a license from the IAB is to pay debts of the IBL, and that the IAB's reluctance to deal with him is simply a matter of money, and not of trustworthiness. That's been complicating anyone else's efforts to get serious traction on an alternative approach."

That complaint is exactly what was written here on the Tabloid Baby site on August 22nd:

As long as the people leading the alleged IBL (Larry Baras, David Solomont Martin Berger and the gang) hang around, it will be tougher to get anyone else interested in taking a new approach. Even if the IAB puts the IBL out of our misery by deciding it will no longer deal with its "executives," any other group stepping forward will have to deal with the baggage.”

Sources also tell me that "Solomont reportedly has been claiming that he has the ability to raise $ 5million. I'm not sure anyone believes him, but the Jewish National Fund apparently has maintained contact with him."

We’ve asked it before and we'll ask it again:

Why is the JNF in bed with the IBL?

And how much money is stuffed inside the mattress of that bed?

Stay tuned…

It’s good to be back on the hunt. Not that I ever left.

EW

-30-

After a year, we end our coverage of Israel baseball

One year ago today, Tabloid Baby entered into a bold experiment that would take our readers into the heart of an unfolding story that on the surface was far afield from our usual tabloid universe, but which from the start had contained all the elements of the best, most engrossing tabloid stories of our time.

From the day one year ago that we inadvertently jumped the gun and became the first to publish Elli Wohlgelernter's muckraking expose of the Israel Baseball League's first season, we saw that there was much more to this story than a well-intended attempt to spread the good word of baseball to a foreign land.

And the story grew on its own from there, with all its intrigue, deceit, betrayals and bizarre and unintentionally comedic twists. And the characters-- including a bagel baron, a champion competitive eater, a fast food defector, a ballplaying attorney, an overgrown Peter Pan, a mysterious Dominican, a toymaker, a billionaire, a US ambassador, a neglected wife, a controversial web mogul-- only made the saga richer.

In the past twelve months and more than 300 posts, this site-- a tabloidcentric site of pop culture and media criticism and satire, became the meeting place and sounding board for ballplayers and sports fans around the world-- not mention a place where anonymity allowed key players in the story to float rumours and leads.

All credit goes to Elli Wohlgelernter.

Known to our readers as Our Man Elli in Israel, this dogged, learned Jerusalem-based journalist worked the story alone, amid much criticism and constant attack, and he did it for no pay and for no other reason than the satisfaction of nailing a great story first. Elli was a legend in the States long before he jumped on this story. And the lessons he gave to every mainstream sports journalist in this saga should have editors jumping to hire him.

As for the "mainstream": To its discredit, the mainstream sports media largely ignored the story unless personal or financial considerations moved an editor or columnist to copy one of our posts or float a story from a source. Their lack of action on and interest in this international sports scandal proves any point we might want to make better than we could hope.

But now it's up to them to pick up the ball, follow our leads, and see where they go. After all, this story ends with a question mark. Why did the IBL's much-heralded second season devolve to a "show fest," and ultimately to a no-show?

What was the scheme?

Your move.

We gave it a year. We drove our regular readers to distraction and lost thousands of fans. But maybe we gained a few. You can find all the coverage on our Baseball in Israel archive site. If there are arrests, or major developments, we'll certainly call attention to them, but as for our weekly and daily coverage of baseball in Israel-- game called.

Game Called. Upon the field of life
the darkness gathers far and wide,
the dream is done, the score is spun
that stands forever in the guide.
Nor victory, nor yet defeat
is chalked against the players name.
But down the roll, the final scroll,
shows only how he played the game.

Here's how it started, and where it ends:

TabloidBaby.com
28 August 2007
07:00 AM

World Exclusive! Special Report! Can't anyone here run this game? Elli Wohlgelernter on the scandalous debut of the Israel Baseball League

Readers of Tabloid Baby know him as Our Man Elli in Israel, our longtime pal and veteran print and broadcast journalist who, more than a decade ago left his native New York City and Yankees for life in Jerusalem, Israel (and subject of the documentary film project, Sex & Baseball. Many others know him as Elli Wohlgelernter, television reporter for the Israeli Broadcasting Authority and freelance print journalist whose reports on life in the Big Bagel have appeared in newspapers from The Jerusalem Post to The New York Times.

Now, in this exclusive report, Elli Wohlgelernter reports on the wild first season of the much-anticipated Israel Baseball League, which led off an eight-week, 45-game season in June:

The Oys of Summer

How Israel's season in the sun
turned into a season in Hell

By ELLI WOHLGELERNTER

BAPTIST VILLAGE, Israel - The Israel Baseball League started out with high hopes, an almost mystical dream that resonated deeply with Jews across the United States: a professional baseball league in Israel!

But the result, say many, were more errors than hits: players threatening to strike when paychecks were late; a manager hired to help give face to the fledgling league leaving in the middle of the season, after trashing the league to the media; and a player almost killed by a batting practice line drive, an accident that might have been prevented with proper equipment.

The IBL was created two years ago by Boston businessman Larry Baras, who cultivated glowing press and fan interest in the United States. Baras assembled a distinguished team of advisers, executives, financial backers and former players, to help launch what in essence was a start-up company in a foreign country.

The stated idea was to generate enthusiasm and fan interest by promising, among other things, a range of marketing gimmicks borrowed from minor league ballparks in the states: karaoke night, speed dating night, sack racing, sumo wrestling competitions, and even ballpark weddings. To further build anticipation, the league’s Web site prominently displayed a countdown clock giving days, minutes, and hours until opening day.

But while the marketing may have worked among the Jews in the U.S. and the English-speaking “Anglo community” here, the league barely registered with Israelis, who were largely ignored in the marketing plans-- and insulted to boot.

David Rosenthal, a sports reporter for Walla!, the biggest Israeli Web portal, posted a story four days before opening day, critical of the way the six-team league was being sold exclusively to an overseas audience. “Excuse me, what about us?” read the headline.

Still, for those Anglo fans who did come out, it was a joy, whether hearing Hatikva sung before each game-- without taking off their hats-- eating kosher hot dogs, getting close to the players, or hearing a call for afternoon prayers being announced in the middle of the fifth inning.

Gripes

But what they didn't know was what was going on in the dugout. Many of the players-- 120 recruited from around the world-- had previously played some professional baseball, a half-dozen even at the Triple-A level, a rung below the Major Leagues. As such, they were expecting a more professional environment, and were greatly disappointed: the housing accommodations were called a hostel, an army barrack, even a homeless shelter; air conditioning wasn’t working in a half-dozen rooms the first week, in the midst of a brutal heat wave; there was no arrangement for laundry service; and the food was so bad, players said, that they eventually lost an average of seven to 10 pounds, or more.

“I’ve lost almost 17 pounds since I’ve been here,” said Scott Jarmakowicz, a catcher for the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox. “Over half my paycheck, at least half, has gone to food. It’s not sustainable eating the same schnitzel and boiled eggs three times a day. I’m a catcher, and it takes its toll. I’m sure I would have lost some weight, but not 17 pounds.”

But that wasn’t even the main gripe. Players just wanted to play baseball, and were expecting the necessities that accompany any sport. But when they arrived at their dorm facilities at Kfar Hayarok just north of Tel Aviv, there was no ice to soothe sore muscles, nor a weight room facility, absolute staples for athletes in any sport.

The league made provisions for ice to be bought, until an ice machine was obtained a couple of weeks into the season; and arrangements were made for players to use nearby gyms. Most of the players were willing to look past the peripheral deficiencies in order to play baseball, a love they all shared, and a dream they all nourished. But here, too, they were working under a severe handicap.

Bones of contention

Arriving only three days before the season began, the players had no time for pre-season workouts; and then there were the fields themselves. The best facility was Baptist Village in Petah Tikva, a beautiful diamond that hosts baseball and softball for the Maccabiah Games.

But the other two fields were bones of contention among the players: One was at Gezer, where the outfield grass sloped upward; there was no warning track in left and center fields; the outfield fence wasn’t padded; and there was a light pole on the field in right. Moreover, the right field foul line was 280 feet, making it feel like a little league pasture, and skewing players’ statistics.

The third field was Sportek in Tel Aviv, which was not even built when the season started. This situation left two fields for six teams and a schedule out of whack: teams had too many days off, managers were unable to set up a proper pitching rotation, and no team completed its full 45-game schedule-- four teams played 41 games, and two played 40. Moreover, neither Gezer nor Sportek had lights, which meant games had to start at 5 p.m., an inconvenient time for working fans.

When Sportek finally opened July 10, 16 days into the eight-week season-– and with a right-field line even shorter than Gezer's-- it still wasn’t ready, with potentially dangerous field conditions.

“There are rocks, glass, and pieces of rusty metal we pulled out of the ground,” said Jarmakowicz. “You can slide on a rock anywhere, but most fields aren’t gong to have three bars sticking out of it. And these are hard fences, you can really get hurt.”

Commissioner Dan Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, concurred. “We need to improve the fields. We used them [Gezer and Sportek], but they are not really at a professional level.”

Near-fatal disaster

At first the ballparks also did not have proper equipment, from little things like pitchers’ resin bags, to important items like screens at the bases during batting practice, to crucial equipment like batting cages, which protect those not on the field from getting hurt during pre-game batting practice. This lack of protection almost resulted in a fatal disaster.

On July 11 at Gezer, Reynaldo Cruz, a 24-year-old star outfielder from the Dominican Republic playing for the Petah Tikva Pioneers, committed a cardinal sin and turned his back on batting practice. Standing near his dugout situated very close to the field, he was struck in the back of the head by a line drive off the bat of Modi’in’s Adalberto Paulino.

Cruz was knocked cold for a couple of minutes and lay on the ground shaking, which gave the surrounding players a fright.

There was a 20-minute wait for an ambulance to arrive before Cruz was taken to Assaf Harofeh hospital, where he stayed for two weeks, was released, and went back in complaining of dizzy spells.

Cruz’s season was done, but he was alive.

“Gezer is a particular problem-- we probably should have anticipated more safety requirements at Gezer,” said Kurtzer. “Secondly, the players themselves have been too lax all season, not wearing batting helmets, and not paying attention on the field during practice. So the horse escapes, the barn door gets closed. We did institute some better safety procedures at Gezer.”

The forfeit

The players were also vociferous in their criticism of the umpiring. In one famous incident that was subsequently posted on YouTube (above), one of the league’s best players, Ryan Crotin, argued an umpire’s call, got thrown out of the game, refused to leave the batter’s box, and his team was declared to have lost on forfeit.

“There [have] been a couple of problems with the umpires here,” said one player on his independent blog. “They don't know some of the rules. They don't know correct umpire positioning. They have inconsistent strike zones at times. They have a bad habit of ejecting players for no specific reason. And most importantly, some of them have trouble taking control of the game.”

Because of all this happening the first three weeks of the season, the league worked hard at spin control. In a July 13 letter from Martin Berger, president and COO of the IBL, the players were told that everything was fine.

“Things over here continue to be strong,” Berger wrote from the U.S. “We are meeting with investors every day and we have a meeting with Major League Baseball Affiliates this week. The buzz is fantastic.”

Rebellion

Three days later was payday, and miscommunication between the league and players resulted in smaller paychecks than were expected. Players-– led by those from the Dominican Republic, who were much more in need of the money to send to their families back home-- threatened to strike, 22 days into the brand new league.

In rushed the league’s commissioner, who scrambled up to Kfar Yarok to stem the rebellion. Around noon, a meeting was held on an outdoor basketball court with the player’s improvised union, led by 45-year-old Alan Gardner, centerfielder for the Blue Sox and a practicing New York lawyer.

“It was funny because the IBL was close to striking-- it was surreal,” said a player in attendance. “Some of the players took video of the makeshift meeting because we all thought it was so funny.”

Not to the league it wasn’t. Kurtzer-– a savvy veteran of tough Middle East political negotiations-- told the players that there had been a misunderstanding, but that he would not negotiate under threat - and, according to players who were there, that he would cancel the league if they struck, a threat Kurtzer denied.

“I didn’t say that,” Kurtzer said. “I said, ‘I’ll talk to you all day, and we’ll fix the problem, but I’m not going to be here with you saying if you’re not happy you’re going out on strike.’ I said, ‘If you want to go out on strike that’s your choice, I can’t stop you.’ ”

Kurtzer explained the mix-up, saying: “The problem at the beginning of the season was that they didn’t understand that we overpaid them the first time, and therefore we adjusted it the second, and our communications broke down. In other words, after two weeks there were supposed to get a week’s pay, and then have that week delay, as in most businesses. After two weeks we paid them for two weeks, so after the second two weeks, we paid them for one week, and we were gong to start the delay, and they said ‘hey, wait a minute, we worked two weeks, and threatened a strike. It was explained to them, and they understood it.”

At a subsequent payday, money was again late. The players, having heard rumors about the league’s financial difficulties, were upset that the league was not more forthcoming.

“I believe that they knew seven or 10 days ahead of time that it was going to be late,” said Jamarkowicz. “Don’t just have us show up, keep telling us you’re going to pay us, and then when we get there, when you knew 90 percent chance that it wasn’t going to come through, tell us, ‘Hey, we’re really trying to get you paid, it could be up to a week late. We’re gonna push it back. We’re gonna try and give you 100, 200 shekels to try to get you by, just work with us.’ I’m more than willing to work with anybody 100 percent. I understand financial backing, new league, things are going to happen. I’m OK with that. But be up front with me, be honest with me, don’t BS me around.”

No balls

Meanwhile, the threatened strike was headed off, and baseball continued. But not all the teams were doing well. The Petah Tikva team, managed by former Jewish Major Leaguer Ken Holtzman, was losing a lot of games, and was destined for last place early on. The losing, and the problems encountered all season, finally got to Holtzman, and he publicly criticized the league, the teams, the players, the fields, and the Israeli fans. (see sidebar)

The league, understandably, was outraged over his words and his going public. It was the black eye the league had been working to avoid all season. Two weeks later, the league and Holtzman reached an agreement for him to leave.

But the league was in trouble, financially most of all. At one point there were no more baseballs, partly a result of players handing out too many souvenirs in the spirit of promoting the league. The IBL had to order more, and the players were ordered not to give away any baseballs to fans, under threat of a 50 shekel fine.

“I know how hard it is to say no and I am very aware of how persistent and sometimes over-zealous our fans can be,” Berger wrote the players on July 31. “But we cannot throw balls into the stands anymore. I just brought over 3500 more baseballs. This is it for the rest of the season. If we run out, we stop playing.”

The players were upset.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to say no to a seven-year-old boy asking for a ball?” wrote Jesse Michel on his blog. “What should I tell him, ‘No son, the league has threatened to fine me if I give you one?’ Right.”

Fans in the dark

All of the various issues plaguing the league were unknown to the public during the season, the result both of an absence of news reporting, and a major effort at spin control by the league.

With the notable exception of Rosenthal writing all season on Walla!, the Israeli press-- Hebrew and English-- was mainly uninterested. The stories that were printed were written by the league’s amateur reporters, who consistently led with the wrong news day after day: a story on a no-hitter led with the news that the game was the quickest of the year, while the story on the All-Star game began with the home run-hitting contest, to cite two examples.

The league was happy with the free, non-controversial publicity, and tried to control any negative publicity by censuring players blogging on their Web site, as well as influencing independent bloggers to remove negative postings.

So the fans kept in the dark on the dugout intrigue supported their teams blindly. By far the teams with the most fan support were Bet Shemesh, followed by Modi’in, two cities with large Anglo communities. One fan from Bet Shemesh celebrated his 45 birthday by baking a cake and traveling to Tel Aviv to hand out slices to his beloved Blue Sox.

“It brought back innocence,” Alan Krasma said of his summer experience, while dishing out the desert. “If you look at the last two summers, we had Gush Katif two summers ago, we had the Lebanon war last summer. This summer was just really relaxed. I was able to come with each of my kids to the game, we met a few of the players, and we really got to know them. It was like coming to watch a bunch of friends play.”

Too little, too late

But while Americans supported the sport-- the league’s attendance ranged from an average of 73 for Netanya to 418 for Bet Shemesh, though it was often a matter of guesswork-- there were few Israelis who attended. The promised marketing gimmicks never happened, and outreach to communities was too little, too late: teams visited their respective city’s malls to give out free tickets and paraphernalia in the seventh week of the eight-week season.

“We did, I think, a superlative job for a new league marketing among Americans in America and among Anglos in Israel,” said Kurtzer. “And we did nothing with Israelis. Part of it had to do with organization. We talked about it a lot, and then we didn’t hire anybody to do it for a long time, and then there was a budget issue, we spent a lot of money on the television contract… This was our management fashla,” he said, using the Israeli slang for a screw-up. “That’s what it was."

Not all Anglos felt the outreach. Rabbi Stewart Weiss, a lifelong fan of his hometown Cubs and a former Bleacher Bum, is director of an organization in Ra'anana helping new immigrants. He and his family attended several games to root for the IBL team named after his adopted city, the Ra'anana Express-- but heard little, if any, information about the team and league in Ra'anana itself.

"They're called the Ra'anana Express, but they don't play here, there is no publicity about them in town, and you can't buy tickets locally," said Weiss. "There ought to be a concerted attempt to reach out to Ra'anana - a city of 75,000, one-third of whom are English-speaking immigrants. There has to be a stronger connection to the city in order to build team spirit and team support. Can you just name a team after a city without actually involving the city or its inhabitants?"

No pay, no play

The league did try one marketing drive aimed at Israelis-- they paid the Israeli sports channel to broadcast Sunday night games in Hebrew. But when payment stopped coming, so did the broadcasts.

“It’s a shame this is what they are doing to us, after we put our heart and soul in it,” Yaron Talpaz, sports channel’s vice president for business development, told Walla! “We did not expect this kind of management from a league whose commissioner was the former U.S. ambassador to Israel.”

Kurtzer said everyone would eventually be paid, including, he admitted, himself, and that it was a shame the sports channel chose not to broadcast the second half of the season, including the championship game.

“Yes, we do owe them money, but I’m confident that they are gong to get paid. It’s a haval that we didn’t have the cash flow to pay them, it’s haval that they didn’t want to do it on faith that they are going to get paid, so, haval. Everyone’s going to get paid.”

Kurtzer said that plans for next season are already under way, that he and league management knows what needs to be done, and that a replay of this season’s problems isn’t likely.

“It will be different in the sense that you will have other complaints-- the food is always going to be a complaint-- but I’d say that 75 percent of the legitimate stuff that these guys complained about this year-- legitimate being because it was true-- we’ll fix it. And they’re gonna get paid on time, and we now know that you gotta get the laundry right, so all that stuff will be done right.

The main problem, he said, was not enough hands on board.

“We need more personnel, league personnel, just to handle issues. Very often players didn’t know to whom to turn, so you just need enough people – someone who is responsible for x, and responsible for y, and you know where to go. So those are the things we’ll work on.”

The players themselves understood that. By the time the Blue Sox beat the Modi’in Miracle for the championship, the players had put all the problems behind them, and were sad to see the inaugural season end. The camaraderie was evident the night before the playoffs, when they held an award night and gave out “The Schnitzel Award” in a number of jocular categories.

Almost to a man, all players asked said they would love to come back and play another season, if they don’t get offers to play anywhere else.

“My personal experience has just been wonderful in every aspect of it,” said Eric Holtz, the 41-year-old player manager for the Blue Sox. “To be able to play and compete, having my wife and children here for three weeks and having them involved in one of the most exciting things of my life, has just been phenomenal. And being a Jew, you can’t come here and not feel some sense of spirituality. And I’m not a religious Jew.”

Asked if he and the other players would come back next season, after all they went through, Holtz didn’t hesitate.

“If they lived through the worst and survived,” he said, “then why wouldn’t they come back next year?"


Elli Wohlgelernter contributed to Roger Kahn's semi-classic baseball book, Good Enough To Dream, and considers this story something of a bookend. Watch Tabloid Baby for more exclusive reports from Our Man Elli in Israel.

And don't forget to read the sidebar on the mudslinging exit of manager Ken Holtzman.

What the f***?

What the f*** was that all about?

The Israel Baseball League's promised expanded second season was reduced to four-team, three-week, 20-game "momentum-building" mini-season, truncated to a one-week "show" festival, reduced to a five-game "show" festival, cut to a one-night stand-- and ended with nothing.

NOTHING.

For all the lip-flapping and free-lunch-acceptance from IBL apologist Shoeless Leon Feingold, for all the deceptive posts on the IBL website, and for all the twitterings of "in-coming President" David Solomont, the supposed saviour with pretensions of installing himself as Presidente of the Dominican Republic of The Middle East Baseball League-- for all the abuse that anonymous commenters heaped on Our Man Elli in Israel's accurate and groundbreaking and award-deserving coverage (and you can find your own links this time, because we're disgusted)-- they never played a f***ing game!

It never happened!

Our Man Elli reports that Shoeless Leon and the other IBL "All-Stars" who got a free trip from the States to Israel have headed back home (hopefully without any transmitted diseases, which could be a possibility if our spies are correct-- Neve Ilan ain't the Olympic Village, boys).

Russell Robinson of the Israel National Fund has checked out of his five-star hotel without ever throwing a first pitch. And David Solomont has also fled the country.

Israel Association of Baseball President Haim Katz, whose group was falsely accused of stopping the tournament that was ever advertised, insured or manned, told Elli today:

"This week changed nothing; It did not affect any change in their (the IBL's) status or in their license to play baseball. No matter what they would have done, it wouldn’t have affected that status.

"It was irrelevant if they played one game or two games or no games. Nothing was coordinated with us beforehand, so it didn't have any bearing on the future."

Mr. Katz, we must disagree. We'd say that a lot has changed.


As long as the people leading the alleged IBL (Larry Baras, David Solomont Martin Berger and the gang) hang around, it will be tougher to get anyone else interested in taking a new approach. Even if the IAB puts the IBL out of our misery by deciding it will no longer deal with its "executives," any other group stepping forward will have to deal wit h the baggage.

Bottom line:

Who will buy their bulls*** now?

And what the f*** was that all about?

Where's the Associated Press coverage of all this?

Oh, right. They only refashion press releases.

Where's bigtime Jerusalem Post sports editor Jeremy Last and his team? Watching the Olympics on television? Or because of the embarrassing publicity, has he gotten the order not to use this site as a source?

Does Jeremy Last still think the IBL failed because there was no promotion among Israelis?

Stay tuned here for a major announcement on the future of coverage of the Israel Baseball League and its fallout.

"This is going to be the Dominican Republic of the Middle East... Our players are going over to put on a show!"

--IBL's new "in-coming president" Solomont

"Players, coaches... interested parties should become the league": Scott Cantor, the Israel Baseball League's oldest player, offers a modest proposal

No, there are no games scheduled in the Israel Baseball League's promised show fest. It never happened and "in-coming president" David Solomont, for all his promises, remains silent on the latest fine mess (except that Our Man Elli in Israel has word that Solomont has indicated to people that Larry Baras and Dan Duquette are still in equity control of the IBL).

But Scott Cantor, who, as a 51-year-old pitcher with the Petach Tikva Pioneers was the oldest player in the Israel Baseball League,has offered this proposal to bring some sort of resolution to the chaos and mountain of debt that have been left in wake of the first and so far sole season of the Israel Baseball League:

1. All of last year's players should pool what ever we were paid and distribute the pool evenly to all the players.

2. The IBL players, coaches, managers, baseball administrators, and former trustees, plus all honestly interested parties should team together and become the league.

3. The people and institutions that are owed money would have to be negotiated with and brought in as partners or work out a settlement.

Feasible? Possible?
What do you think?

Israel Baseball League show fest set for tomorrow

The Israel Baseball League’s weeklong “show” festival is set to begin tomorrow and Our Man Elli in Israel is off doing live TV reports for the Israel Broadcasting Authority!

We’ve got to get this guy on the hotline!

Our Man Elli: Hello?

Tabloid Baby: The Olympics?

Huh?

You’re off covering the Olympics when our Olympics is about to launch?

I’m not in Beijing, schmuck. I’m making a living.

Well, we don’t have the plug-in to see your reports.

They’re very good.

If you must say so yourself. So what’s going on with the Dominican Republic of The Middle East League.

Before I begin, do me a favour. Don’t post photos of naked ladies with this. It’s degrading.

Too late.

Schmuck.

We’re a day away. Any protests?

None I’ve seen or heard of. They may not announce the festivus, hoping no one comes. And they don’t need anyone to come. They only want to have photos of something going on, which they’ll post on their web site to attract investors.

It's looking like a game of fungo.

Is (embattled league founder) Larry Baras or David Solomont going to get arrested at the airport?

Baras isn’t coming, because he could get arrested if he shows up. It’s not clear if Solomont is in same position.

So this isn’t exactly turning into a national holiday.

Let’s just say it could be Israel’s best secret weapon, equal to the Stealth. It’s so far under the radar, not a single person in Israel is aware of the Grand Festivus that’s supposedly happening tomorrow night.

But why not?

Sources tell me there’s real dissension inside the IBL brain trust.

Rats scurrying on a sinking ship?

Not quite; but I hear that the head of the IBL-–

El Presidente David Solomonte of the Dominican Republic of the Middle East Baseball League!

If you insist. Anyway, Solomonte— now you’ve got me saying it— Solomont is freezing out Ami Baran, who’s director of Israeli operations, and was manager of the Netanya Tigers last summer. He’s telling people they shouldn’t work with Baran. There seems to be a lack of mutual trust issue. One insider described the situation as a balagan, which is—

Israeli slang for “chaos.”

Hey! That’s right! Nice one!

So why the freeze-out?

For one, there’s been a real fight within the IBL on whether the Festivus event should be held-- which makes sense, because it doesn’t appear there are any Israeli professionals around for the IBL players --

Those 12 veterans—are they despised by their brothers?

Not by all. Sure, some say they’d be playing on the backs of the players from last season who haven’t been paid. But you see from the traffic on your comment boards that they’re still debating that.

Like the comment last night asking how the IBL can pay for players to come over to play and not pay the players from last season.

Right, but let’s get back to the Festivus.

Please, continue.

Apparently, Solomont insisted on the Festivus going forward, because he felt it was necessary to show movement—

So he can raise money.

Right. He also wants to make it more difficult for the Israel Association of Baseball to ignore him.

Isn’t the IAB having an executive board meeting today?

As we reported. It’s this evening, Israel time. But get this: I spoke to Haim Katz, the head of the IAB, and he said the IBL is not on schedule of items to talk about.

So what is?

The issues of any organization taking care of business : A few fields they’d like to invest in, a new regional director in Jerusalem, and how they’re going to organize the Fall league. Katz told me, quote: “We have more pressing issues that need to be discussed. I don’t expect any decisions on the IBL - the IBL is not on the agenda.”

I asked Katz if the IBL is likely to come up for discussion in any case, and he said, “Not that I know of.” But I would imagine that after pressing business is taken care of, someone’s going to bring it up.

Yeah, it’s a bit of an elephant in the room.

Right. But meanwhile, it’s the same situation I told you last week. The IAB’s not involved in the Festivus in any way. Katz even told me-- quoting again: “I know of no game scheduled for Thursday, or next week-- nobody talked to me about any games this week or next week.”

Is the IAB a for-profit organization?

Nope. I’s a non-profit entity, dedicated solely to advancing the good cause of baseball in Israel.

Is it a cause worthy supporting? I mean the IAB.

Oh yeah. For sure. What could be a better cause for the readers of this site who want baseball to succeed in Israel? No matter what side they are on.

How can they help?

I asked Katz, and he said the IAB has a working relationship with the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh. People can make a tax-deductible donation to their web site. Just to be sure to mark it for “Israel baseball.”

So the IAB is the real Israel baseball?

They’re the official sanctioning governing body of baseball, there is no other.

And they haven’t sanctioned the IBL.

They haven’t even been approached by the IBL. So far, Solomont and company have been working around them.

Anything else?

Just one thing. Remember that fan poll on the IBL site? Still not a single vote registered.

Keep us updated.

I’ll report tomorrow on whether the Festivus begins.

Yeah, try to take a few seconds away from the Olympics.

Israel’s tennis players just got eliminated.

Baseball!

Foul ball! Solomont challenges some debt claims against the Israel Baseball League as "questionable"

In a new tactic against those who claim they're owed more than $1,500,000 in wake of the Israel Baseball League’s first and thus far only season in 2007, new “in-coming president” and “major shareholder” David Solomont says that some of the longstanding claims by vendors and others are “questionable.”

In an interview posted online today by the San Diego Jewish World, Solomont again promises that the IBL’s two-week baseball show festival will go on as planned on August 14th.
The controversial Boston businessman also restates his intention to play winter ball in Israel and to make the country “the Dominican Republic of the Middle East.”

Among the highlights:

“Solomont, a Massachusetts-based venture capitalist who describes himself as a big Boston Red Sox fan, said he has been pulling together investors who will pay off the IBL’s outstanding debts while at the same time paving the way for winter ball in Israel’s Negev Desert and the resumption of six-team summer play in 2009”;

“The American investor said he could have suggested to the previous group of owners of the Israel Baseball League that they simply declare bankruptcy and then he could have started a new league fresh. However, he said, he felt the right thing to do was to pay off the debts that were accumulated by the group headed by Larry Baras”;

“Solomont praised Baras as a visionary, who like those involved in manykinds of start-up enterprises, had inufficient inforrmation about the real costs. He said $2 million (rather than $1 million) in capitalization would have been more prudent and would have avoided some of the problems that the League now faces in paying off creditors”;

“As a new owner, he said, he believes he must exercise “due diligence” in examining claims made by creditors, some of which are questionable, he said. 

At the same time, he said in a telephone interview, to bring in new investment into the League, he cannot solely pay off old debts, but also must begin spending money to assure future programming and revenues”;



The paper prints part of a letter from the chief executive officer of the at Kfar Hayarok agricultural school, where approximately 100 IBL players and coaches were housed. Hayarok says the school is still owed $170,000 and says in the letter:

"
…At the end of the hosting period, Larry Baras… informed us that some of the League investors’ money had not reached him and therefore he was returning to the U.S. to raise the money as promised. He left us a cheque for the remaining debt dated September 9, 2007.



“A few days before the payment date, we were informed that there was still no money in the league’s account and we were told to wait until we received a confirmation from Larry to deposit the cheque.

The debt that has been left is more than $170,000.

“We have held talks with Larry and have been corresponding via email but the debt has not been paid yet….”

Jewish World follows up:

“Solomont, the new owner… said that Baras now is out of the picture… Solomont said that he had not yet sent any money to Hakfar Hayarok but planned to make a good faith payment of $10,000 U.S. this week or next…”

“He said payment to the school might have been quicker but for two glitches that were not the school’s fault. The first was that the paperwork left to him didn’t reflect requested additional services that the IBL received after the contract was signed. Secondly, he said, he at first had difficulty reconciling the numbers because he had been doing the calculations in dollars, while the contract called for payment in shekalim. The Israeli currency has been growing stronger against the U.S. dollar in the last year.

 Solomont said he similarly will review invoices submitted by other creditors, and will work his way through those debts.”


“‘All these organizations ought to be rallying behind the IBL to see what we can all do to make it a success,’ he said. He said he hopes that eventually there will be 12 teams in the Israel Baseball League.

As for winter baseball in the Negev, Solomont said there is no better location for it, given the large number of flights both from Asia and Europe directly to Israel. From the standpoint of winter baseball, said Solomont, Israel could become the 'Dominican Republic of the Middle East.'"

Read the entire article here.

IBL's biographer admits first season may be its last

Ron Kaplan, the authorized biographer of the Israel Baseball League and its founder Larry Baras, has been one of the most unapologetic supporters of the IBL, and an early public critic of the investigative work of Our Man Elli in Israel-- calling is original explosive IBL expose "a bit unnecessarily harsh." But this morning, the sports editor of the New Jersey Jewish News and blogger behind Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf has, for the first time, admitted that the future of the IBL is not as bright as he would have liked to imagine.

In a posting today on the burst of publicity over a possible documentary film about IBL vet Ari Alexenberg (which mistakenly refer to the 45-year-old as the "IBL's oldest player"-- that distinction goes to Scott Cantor, 51-- Kaplan calls Alexenberg "a 45-year-old Boston man who played in the first (and perhaps only) season of the Israel Baseball League last year."

Kaplan's admission that the 2007 IBL season may be "perhaps" its "only season" is a major admission from someone who is so closely tied to the IBL inner circle.

Why is "in-coming" Israel Baseball League president David Solomont ducking original IBL investor Michael Rollhaus?

Original Israel Baseball League investor Michael Rollhaus is having about as much luck getting answers from the new, improved IBL regime as he did with embattled league founder Larry Baras, who, more than a year after opening day of the league’s disastrous sole season, continues to refuse or is unable or has refused to give an accounting of how Rollhaus’s $100,000 investment— not mention millions more— was spent.

Rollhaus says he’s tried unsuccessfully for more than a week to get in touch with Baras’s successor, David Solomont, who took control of the league in a bloodless coup earlier this month and installed himself as “in-coming” El Presidente of the newly-named Dominican Republic of the Middle East Baseball League.

The timeline as we understand it:

* Sunday July 20: Rollhaus calls Solomont from Israel. No answer. Rollhaus leaves a message.

* Wednesday, July 23: Rollhaus calls again, this time from New York. This time, Solomont answers, but says he was on a conference call and promises to call back. Rollhaus says he did not.

* Thursday, July 24: Rollhaus calls Solomont’s cell phone in the afternoon. Solomont says he is a on a train and does not want to disturb the people around him. He apologizes profusely, saying he was a bad person for not getting back to Rollhaus, but promised to call Rollhaus on Thursday night. Rolhaus never gets a call.

* Friday, July 25: Rollhaus sends Solomont the following email:

From: Michael Rollhaus
Sent: Jul 25, 2008 5:06 AM
To: David Solomont
Subject: News

David, Sorry you were unable to take my call and could not get back to me. Right now I am planning to be in Israel from 8/7-8/17. If the situation is right, I can alter my flight plans, so: Is this festival that I am hearing about actually going to happen (if it is not certain, please let me know as I will not change my plans; if you have the two teams set, umpires and field in place and the games are a definite go, I will look into it).

What are the game dates and times?

Are you playing any games on Shabbat?

Have all the player/coach/manager monies owed been paid up from last year?

Why am I hearing that some people who have received checks have had them returned for insufficient funds?

Please let me know what's up either by email or telephone. However, do not call me during Shabbat as I do not take phone calls then.

Thanks for your help!

Michael Rollhaus

* Today, July 27: As of this posting, Rollhaus has yet to receive a reply from David Solomont.

As Our Man Elli in Israel reported in his comprehensive and authoritative IBL article published by the esteemed Jerusalem Post, Solomont’s apparent stonewalling follows an IBL tradition that has gone one for more than a year, despite his promises that the “new” IBL is launching with a clean slate.

(Read Elli’s exclusive interview with Michael Rolhaus that we published on Thursday.)